The sight of a train engine pulling 11
empty cars into Wallowa County across Minam bridge Saturday morning was
a historic one.It was almost seven years since a working
train had entered the county, and almost never happened again.

The first working train
to arrive in Wallowa County in seven years on its way to Wallowa Forest
Products to pick up a load of lumber.

It was 7 1/2 years ago, in January of 1995,
that Wallowa County announced it would fight Idaho Northern plans to abandon
the 60-mile rail line between Elgin and Joseph.

In the end, Wallowa County had to buy more
than time. This year, after many times when the struggle appeared lost,
the county bought the railroad in order to save it.
Its partner in the deal is Union County, and backing the railroad puchase
with guaranteed funds is the State of Oregon.

Despite detractors who continue to doubt
that the railroad can ever be operated economically, the county persevered.

The long battle appears to have been won
this week when the first working train to enter Wallowa County in seven
years left with cars full of lumber from the Wallowa Forest Products mill.

“I’ll be even happier in a a year, when
a half loaded railroad car is no big deal,” said commission chair Mike
Hayward Monday during a celebratory barbecue at the Wallowa mill. Hayward
spent many, many hours over the last couple of years negotiating a complicated
deal that would be acceptable to the county board, the county taxpaxers,
the railroad, Union County and the state.

“It’s cheaper than trucking,” said mill
manager John Redfield about the resumption of railroad availability in
Wallowa County. He estimates that 12-15 loads of lumber a
week will be shipped by rail from the mill each week “from now on.”

One potential of the railroad is that logs
now being trucked to the mill from places like Yakima and Ellensburg, Wash.,
can be brought in more cheaply by train.

Redfield said that Bowman Trucking of La
Grande will still be kept busy hauling chips, and because of the recent
addition of a second shift, will be almost as busy as previously when it
also hauled lumber.

Hayward mentioned at an earlier that there
are potential buyers for the closed Joseph Timber sawmill, and that Idaho
Northern, which will operate the county’s railroad for the next year, is
willing to extend operation from the Wallowa millsite to Joseph in the
near future. He praised Idaho Northern’s work and cooperation in getting
the railroad running again.

In the past, the possibility that the reopening
of the Joseph mill could hinge on an operating railroad has been brought
up at public meetings.

During a Wallowa County board meeting held
Monday morning, the board discussed the proposed establishment of the railroad
authority and the makeup of the board of directors, but action was postponed.
Hayward said that he would like Wallowa County’s representatives on the
board to not only have a passion for railroads, but to “bring something
to the table,” either business or railroad expertise.

It was just over a year ago when a phone
call from County Planning Director Bill Oliver about the need for a permit
stopped a salvage crew that arrived from Montana, ready to rip up the railroad
tracks first laid in 1908.

Part of Wallowa County’s past, the railroad
has now survived to play a part in the county’s future.